Looks like this has been fixed.

Chris can you reproduce your problem in newer versions of Okular?

I still have this problem, although I also have the impression that it has recently much improved. 

My hypothesis is that files which contain bookmarks (so that the "Contents" tab in the Navigation Panel can be activated) open with the Navigation Panel closed even if both the file and Okular where closed from a position with the Navigation Panel open. On the other hand, files without bookmarks open with the Navigation Panel open on the Thumbnail view, again irrespective of whether the Navigation Panel was open or closed the last time Okular and/or the file were open.

Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS
Qt: 4.8.6
KDE Development Platform: 4.13.3
Okular: 0.19.3

Hi all,

@Albert Astals Cid, yes, I can still reproduce it on my updated 14.04.3 LTS box. Okular 0.19.3, KDE 4.13.3.

What I now realize I should have mentioned is that I do not use KDE as the graphical interface. I use the default Unity and just some KDE programs.

Thanks!

I'm on archlinux using xmonad and no KDE/Plasma.

```
$ okular --version
Qt: 4.8.7
KDE Development Platform: 4.14.14
Okular: 0.23.2
```

Using Plasma or not has nothing to do with the bug, and yes this bug is still reproducible.

Sumit please be a bit more careful at reproducing the steps when suggesting a bug has been fixed.

Yup. My bad. I'm extremely sorry.
I didn't read the issue carefully enough.

I'll be more careful in the future.
Sorry for the time wasted.

I too find the default behavior a minor annoyance.  I rarely work with PDFs that are but more than a few pages so the navigation panel is just wasted real estate for me.  I'd much prefer to enable it when needed rather than almost always closing it.

Can we expect a new configuration option for this any time soon?

(In reply to John Florian from comment #8)
> I too find the default behavior a minor annoyance.  I rarely work with PDFs
> that are but more than a few pages so the navigation panel is just wasted
> real estate for me.  I'd much prefer to enable it when needed rather than
> almost always closing it.
> 
> Can we expect a new configuration option for this any time soon?

A configuration option i don't think makes any sense, remembering the last state after closing may be smarter, but needs someone with time to implement it.

I have sent a patch here: https://phabricator.kde.org/D11051

May someone please review my patch being sent?

This has bothered me for a long time. Please fix/review.

Git commit b8b36ae529599da358f433fe23d7bac4dea79fa8 by Nate Graham.
Committed on 27/05/2020 at 13:37.
Pushed by ngraham into branch 'master'.

Improve the sidebar's navigation and UX

Okular's sidebar vertical view chooser toolbar suffers from a few issues:

* It's a nonstandard UI not used for category choosers in other pieces of KDE software,
  and not used in other FOSS document readers
* What is shown and what is hidden is simultaneously too configurable while still not
  offering the desirable UI common to other programs (i.e. no visible category chooser,
  but a sidebar capable of displaying thumbnails, table of contents, search results, etc.)
* With labels on it takes up quite a bit of horizontal space, while with labels off, the
  categories are less than clear
* UX is kind of clunky with nonstandard behaviors (e.g. clicking on the current category
  to hide that category's view while keeping the view chooser visible, showing mostly
  disabled items)
* It's made with custom painting code, which reduces maintainability and introduces bugs
  (e.g. https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=408190)

This patch removes the vertical category chooser entirely and replaces it with a tabbed
view on the top of the sidebar itself. The tabs are icons-only and have large icons. A
button is added on the left side of the default toolbar to quickly hide or show the
sidebar. In order to make room for the new button, the Previous and Next buttons on the
toolbar are removed, as previous/next buttons are already present on the Page Bar on the
bottom of the window so there's no need to duplicate this functionality. This improves
the UX, fixes a variety of bugs, and deletes a lot of custom code of dubious long-term
maintainability.

![vokoscreenNG-2020-04-16_13-29-24](https://invent.kde.org/graphics/okular/uploads/a1f96a315b69282df51de9993b1befaf/vokoscreenNG-2020-04-16_13-29-24.webm)
Related: bug 213508, bug 334441, bug 408190, bug 335189

FIXED-IN: 1.11.0

CHANGELOG: The sidebar can now be easily shown or hidden with a toolbar button, and the category chooser no longer takes up so much space

M  +-    --    doc/annotations.png
M  +-    --    doc/bookmark-management.png
M  +8    -10   doc/index.docbook
M  +-    --    doc/mainwindow.png
M  +-    --    doc/signatures-panel.png
M  +34   -34   part.cpp
M  +4    -2    part.h
M  +2    -3    part.rc
M  +10   -1    ui/bookmarklist.cpp
M  +11   -1    ui/layers.cpp
M  +11   -1    ui/side_reviews.cpp
M  +21   -654  ui/sidebar.cpp
M  +1    -19   ui/sidebar.h
M  +14   -1    ui/signaturepanel.cpp
M  +23   -0    ui/thumbnaillist.cpp
M  +2    -3    ui/thumbnaillist.h
M  +10   -1    ui/toc.cpp

https://invent.kde.org/graphics/okular/commit/b8b36ae529599da358f433fe23d7bac4dea79fa8